Really enjoyed this talk by Sandy Peterson. Intended for CoC but a lot of broad applicability to OSR game design as well. It’s interesting how in favor he is just of ripping off of existing movies or novels but then switching the location or mashing some stuff together.
I think a lot of the “aesthetics of ruin” and typical lore stuff in lots of OSR scenes makes investigative horror games a pretty close sibling style of play.
And so much of the old guard played by pretty much just blending together their references, it’s why D&D’s Apendix N is so instructive on where elements came from. I think more people would be happier if they played with their influences on their sleeve more instead of trying to be super unique all the time.